Showing archive results for 2004

Can't get past the first step.

Somehow the server is in a wonky state and my autopilot script that posts a new article at 7 every morning is getting error 500 back (internal server error). So I'm posting manually for the nonce. Expect erratic posting times until the problem is resolved.

Norman Diamond noted in a comment that on Windows 2003 Server, the Display Adapter Troubleshooting slider still lists "full acceleration" as the recommended setting even though the default for Server is "full minus one". This is one of those "Oh, that's an easy change" bugs. The discussion probably went like this: Some guy whose idea this was...

Endpoint-exclusive RECTs and lines are much easier to work with. For example, the width of a rectangle is , and its height is . If rectangles were endpoint-inclusive, then there would be annoying +1's everywhere. End-point exclusive rectangles also scale properly. For example, suppose you have two rectangles (0,0)-(100,100) and (100,100)-(200,20...

Each dialog can have different base units, so it's meaningless to have a global converter.

Somebody@somewhere.else described me as having the social skills of a thermonuclear device. I don't remember the incident in question, but I'll have to accept that it happened. I have a very low tolerance for laziness. If you come to me for help, I expect you to have done your homework. (Though I try to scale my expectations to your position. If ...

Here is where Raymond gets to abuse his power as a blogger to get some free travel advice. I will likely travel to Sweden in mid-March, with a whopping total of five months of Swedish under my belt. I'm sure I will embarrass myself horribly, but that's sort of the point, after all. The question is, "So what's to do in Sweden?" I was thinki...

There is a constant struggle between people who write programs and the people who actually use them. For example, you often see questions like, "How do I make my program so the user can't kill it?" Now, imagine if there were a way to do this. Ask yourself, "What would the world be like if this were possible?" Well, then there would be some progra...

An overflow crowd attended The Seattle Improbable Show. It was, as expected, a rollicking good time. Mark Abrahams emceed and gave presentations, one on each of last year's Ig Nobel Prize winners, another chronicling various stages in the development of Project Grizzly. Other speakers were allotted five minutes (strictly and amusingly enforced) t...

I went through security three times at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport before my flight to Newark. My original flight was cancelled due to inclement weather in Newark, so I get rescheduled onto another flight that arrived three hours later. I thought to myself, "That's strange. Both flights are going to Newark. It's not like the weather in...